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Friday, 16 December 2011

Touch of Frost Review

Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy 1)

-Jennifer Estep

Publisher: Kensington Books

My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy — a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword and Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest.

But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why—especially since I should have been the one who died. . .

After being teased by the prologue to this series, First Frost, I couldn’t wait to pick up with the series proper and see how Gwen was coping at Mythos Academy. Luckily I had won a signed copy a couple of months ago so I wasted no time in catching up with Gwen again! After two months at Mythos Gwen still hasn’t made any friends, is still missing her mom and isn’t sure about all this mythology and magic that both the teachers and other students seem to believe in. But when one of the most popular girls in her class is killed and a rare artefact stolen from the library where she works, Gwen is determined to figure out exactly what is happening at Mythos Academy...

Gwen is such a fantastic character – she is still hurting from the death of her mother and feels guilty (although she shouldn’t!), but she still manages to care more about Jasmine’s death than anyone else who knew her for years. Gwen loves comic books and purple hoodies. She has a sweet tooth and despite everything is smart, determined and quite stubborn. I loved her from the first page when she confronts Daphne –and the more I read the more I wanted to be Gwen’s friend. There is a nice mix of characters in Gwen’s world. Some of which might seem like stereotypes at first, but they all have layers to them. I especially like how Daphne got involved in the story. As for Logan – I want to know his secrets as much as Gwen does!

The story is intriguing with a mix of the everyday, mystery and magic and entirely engrossing. Jennifer Estep’s writing is fabulous – the world is detailed and well thought out and you can just immerse yourself in the world without feeling too lost. Plus I loved reading the Greek, Roman and Norse myths when I was growing up so I was utterly compelled with how Jennifer has combined them all – and the different races into creating a new mythology for this series. I can’t wait for Kiss of Frost to turn up in my mailbox – yes, I ordered it the second I finished reading Touch of Frost! J

Recommended for fans of Richelle Mead and Jeri Smith-Ready. 9 out of 10